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Research on chitin as a marine resource is pointing to novel applications for this cellulose-like biopolymer. Discovery of nondegrading solvent systems has permitted the spinning of filaments, for example, for use as surgical sutures. New methods for preparing the bioactive alkyl glycoside of N-acetyl-D-glucosamine (the monomer unit of chitin) and a microcrystalline chitin has encouraged their use as promoters for growth of bifidobacteria and as an aid in digestion of high-lactose cheese whey by domestic animals. Chitin-protein complexes of several crustacean species show great variability in ratios of chitin to covalently bound protein and in residual protein in the "purified" chitins.
Austin et al. (Fri,) studied this question.